This invention relates to a cleaning tape for cleaning the magnetic head of a magnetic recording system.
A cleaning tape is used to clean a surface of recording and reproducing head, guide poles, and rollers in the tape path of an audio cassette tape recorder, video tape recorder, and other magnetic recording systems. One conventional cleaning tape comprises a support which has coated thereon a cleaning layer composed of a binder and an abrasive such as alumina (Al.sub.2 O.sub.3), silicon carbide (SiC), chromium oxide (Cr.sub.2 O.sub.3) or red oxide (.alpha.-Fe.sub.2 O.sub.3). This cleaning layer is effective for cleaning purposes, but because of its very strong polishing effect, it sometimes damages the head or guide poles as well as the blade of a cutter for making sized tape or splicing magnetic tape together. To eliminate these defects, a method has been proposed to mat the surface of the support by sandblasting the support rather than forming a cleaning layer containing an abrasive (Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 42726/74). However, the surface of the support provided by this method has only a limited degree of roughness (i.e., unevenness) and it sometimes occurs that the support has reduced rupture strength.